Elon Musk doubles down on universal basic income: 'It's going to be necessary'

In an interview with CNBC
in November, Tesla
CEO Elon Musk joined a growing list of tech executives who
support universal basic income as a possible solution to the
widespread unemployment that automation will likely cause.

Universal basic income is a system in which all citizens receive
a standard amount of money each month to cover basic expenses
like food, rent, and clothes.

The downside of that projection is that millions of people would
wind up out of a job - a possibility Musk discussed at the
summit.

"There will be fewer and fewer jobs that a robot cannot do
better," he said. "I want to be clear. These are not things I
wish will happen; these are things I think probably will happen."

Executives who have endorsed UBI - a group
that includes Y Combinator President Sam Altman and Facebook
cofounder Chris Hughes - also say automation would dramatically
increase a society's wealth.

"With automation, there will come abundance," Musk said. "Almost
everything will get very cheap."

That money theoretically could be redistributed to give people
financial security even if they didn't work. UBI advocates often
point to reduced costs as a reason the system could be cheaper to
implement than most might assume.

"Because a very small amount of people have an almost
unimaginable amount of money at the very top, a basic income
could actually decrease almost everyone else's income tax burdens
except for theirs," Scott Santens, a UBI advocate,
wrote for The Huffington Post.

Musk retains some skepticism about the effects of UBI. He has
voiced concerns about what would happen to people's sense of
purpose if they had less of a need - or no need - to work.